Flooded Neighborhood Streets – Courtesy: Shutterstock – Image by johnmoorefour
Florida’s Horseshoe Beach (AP) — As Tropical Storm Debby headed dangerously toward the low-lying areas of the Eastern Seaboard and threatened to drown some of the most historically significant Southern cities in America, it pounded Florida with intense rain and strong gusts, resulting in at least four fatalities.
According to the National Hurricane Center, flash flooding was predicted to result from record-breaking rain, with up to 30 inches (76 cm) of rain anticipated in certain places. Charleston, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia, were at risk from possible high water. In central and northern Florida, forecasts called for up to 18 inches (46 cm).
Georgia will still face challenges as waterways north of the border fill up and flow south, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis cautioned. This is because the storm is advancing toward Georgia.
During an afternoon briefing at the state’s emergency operations center, he stated, “It is a very saturating, wet storm.” “We just need to be aware of it not only today but also for the next week, when they crest and the water that’s going to come down from Georgia.”
As a Category 1 storm, Debby made landfall early on Monday along Florida’s Gulf Coast. Since then, it has diminished to a tropical storm with a slow speed, flooding highways and resulting in at least four fatalities.
After losing control of his tractor trailer, which turned over a concrete wall and dangled over the side before the cab fell into the water below, a truck driver on Interstate 75 in the Tampa region died. The driver, a 64-year-old Mississippian, was found by sheriff’s office divers in the cab 40 feet (12 meters) below the surface, the Florida Highway Patrol reported.
The Levy County Sheriff’s Office reports that a 13-year-old child passed away early on Monday morning after a tree fell on a mobile home southwest of Gainesville.
A 38-year-old woman and a 12-year-old child perished in an automobile accident on wet roads on Sunday night in Dixie County, which is located directly east of the storm’s landfall point. According to the Florida Highway Patrol, a passenger who was 14 years old was hospitalized due to severe injuries.
PowerOutage.us and Georgia Electric Membership Corp. report that as of Monday afternoon, more over 300,000 customers in Florida and Georgia were still without power—a decrease from the peak of more than 350,000.
About 17,000 linemen, according to DeSantis, were engaged in restoring power. He advised locals in the impacted areas to avoid driving until the situation is safe.
Airports were impacted as well. According to FlightAware.com, over 1,600 flights have been canceled countrywide, with many of them traveling to and from airports in Florida. Monday saw the cancellation of one aircraft out of every five that was supposed to depart from Orlando International Airport. At Tampa International Airport, around thirty percent of the scheduled flights were canceled.
One of the most severely affected cities by flooding was Sarasota, Florida, a beach town that draws many of visitors.
Essentially, we’ve had twice as much rain as was expected, according to a social media statement from Sarasota County Fire Chief David Rathbun.
The White House stated that President Joe Biden was updated on Debby’s advancement while he was at his Wilmington, Delaware, home.
A planned trip to Georgia by Vice President Kamala Harris has been postponed due to Tropical Storm Debby’s continuing effects. According to Harris’ campaign, the storm has forced a postponement of her scheduled appearance in Savannah, Georgia, on Thursday.
Local authorities in Savannah warned that if Debby stalls out over the city, flooding may occur in places that don’t often experience high water. Authorities imposed a curfew from 10 p.m. on Monday until 6 a.m. on Tuesday because winds and rainfall were predicted to get worse overnight.
“Many people will be caught off guard by this kind of rain that is hovering over us and coming with the intensity that they have warned us is going to happen,” Chatham County Chairman Chester Ellis said.
During a 90-second briefing on Monday morning, Ben Webster, the interim emergency director for Charleston County in South Carolina, referred to Debby as a “historic and potentially unprecedented event” three times.
In addition to providing people with sandbags, the city of Charleston has opened parking garages to allow citizens to park their cars above floodwaters and set up an online mapping system that indicates which roads are closed because of flooding.
In the last nine years, tropical systems have caused three devastating floods in North and South Carolina, totaling more than $1 billion in damages.
Massive flooding was generated in 2015 by rainfall that was fueled by moisture when Hurricane Joaquin passed well offshore.
In 2016, Hurricane Matthew’s floods in the two states resulted in 24 fatalities and record-breaking river crests. Hurricane Florence in 2018 broke those marks, setting records for rainfall in both Carolinas, flooding many of the same locations, and killing 42 people in North Carolina and 9 in South Carolina.
Debby touched down close to Steinhatchee, a little village of less than a thousand people in northern Florida. It is not far from the spot where Hurricane Idalia, a Category 3 storm, made landfall less than a year ago.
Steinhatchee resident Sue Chewning has survived two storms. She claimed that, in her nearly 73 years of residence in the region, she had never personally experienced a direct hurricane hit—until this one-two combination from Idalia and Debby.
There are many who could declare, “I can no longer handle this. However, I believe that most of the locals will stick around, support one another, and dig in as it’s a tight-knit community, Chewning added.
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Melissa’s career in writing started more than 20 years ago. Today, she lives in South Florida with her husband and two boys.
